Letter From Norway During WW II

By RuthAnn Wilson

This article, found in a folder of very old newspaper clippings, has the date “1943”written in pencil, while the heading does not tell which newspaper printed this article. It tells of a letter received from Norway sometime during World War II. It was sent to Bernice Bakke of Westby, soon after Bernice signed up to serve in the WAVES. The WAVES began in August 1942, when Eleanor Roosevelt persuaded Congress to authorize a women's component of the Navy — the WAVES. This was the first time women were able to serve in the military. 

Westby: 1943

If Mrs. Bertine Ruud, native of Westby but now a citizen of Oslo, Norway, wishes she was in America, her letters do not reveal it.

She was one of three daughters born (January 21, 1876) to Mr. And Mrs. Knut Hjelstuen (Bergine Toft) three score years ago near Westby, where she lived with her parents and sisters until she was 30 years old. At that age, having learned to love Norway through her mother’s description of it, she sailed on her first voyage to her mother’s country. Here she met and fell in love with Andreas Ruud, a skillful surgical instrument maker, who had a prosperous business in Oslo. She returned to America, but two years later (1910) went back to Norway to marry Mr. Ruud, with whom she lived happily many years.

When she was widowed (1923) she was left in comfortable means and owned a beautiful home in Oslo (Taasen Terrace). Many and long were the interesting letters she wrote home to her two sisters, Mrs. Anna Bakke and Mrs. Anton Anderson (Pauline), both living near Westby.  

She came here for visits, too, at least twice. Then came the war, changing everything for Mrs. Ruud as well as for everyone else. She is now living in two rooms in her former home since fuel cannot be had for the upkeep of a large dwelling.

Miss Bernice Bakke, a niece who has visited her aunt twice in Norway, first in 1931 as a high school graduation gift of the aunt, and again in 1938 when Miss Bakke “earned her own” by teaching, has just received a letter from Mrs. Ruud. It was sent airmail, reached here a month after it was sent, and was censored at Frankfort-on-the-Main. Nothing, however, had been deleted, due, Miss Bakke thinks, to her aunt’s individualistic handwriting, best understood by those familiar with it and because the letters are very cleverly written. She asks, “How are Martha and the children?” as though it is a family affair, when she is really inquiring about Crown Princess Martha (she and her children were kept safe in USA White House during the war).

She speaks of shortage of food, but not of the absence of it (it was later learned there was much starvation). Each person had a ration card for clothing and food. So many points of it only may be used during the quarter year. She was now saving “points” to get a pair of stockings. She speaks of substitutes for food, and had her afternoon “coffee” of steeped roasted peas and pronounced it “good.” She is glad, she says, that she is an unimportant citizen, since it is dangerous to be important these days.  

They do not mind the actual blackouts half as much as the “darkness” of not knowing the truth. “You may know what is going on,” she says, “but we don’t.”

Expressing thankfulness that they can meet to study and hear God’s word, she speaks of a “USA Christian Friends” group who meet for devotions carried on in English. It is composed of people who have spent part of their time in America.

Carding and spinning has again become a vocation for Mrs. Ruud, who learned it as a child in America. She speaks of it as a bit cumbersome, however. In each of the letters received from time to time by one or another of her relatives she reiterates, “I hope you do not join in the conflict.”  (Of course the USA had entered the conflict in 1941, but citizens in Norway had no news)

Miss. Bakke is in possession of a family heirloom, a ring, handed down to her by Mrs. Ruud, and one which has been in the family for generations. This ring has crossed the Atlantic Ocean 11 times on the finger of one or the other of these generation members.